Extraordinary China:World's longest high-speed railway debuts

[beijingwalker]

I would stay on the ground for any flights that last less than 90 minutes. To fly, we need to commute to the airport, wait for the plane and risk delays and cancellations. Also, a bad weather would ground the flights. How would incremental weather affect HSR?

I don't think the weather would affect HSR at all.

 

[huskie]

For example Delhi-Mumbai distance is roughly 1000 kms.
I would rather take a 1.5 hour flight than an 7 hour HSR journey(if there is HSR, which there isnt at the moment), if the prices are roughly same.

Wont you agree?

Delhi-Mumbai is about 1400km apart, similar to Beijing-Shanghai (1318km). The Beijing-Shanghai HSR currently covers the distance in 4 hours 48 minutes. If you take into the extra time for getting to the airports and waiting/going through security etc at the airports, air travel only saves you one or two hours.

Besides, there are at least dozens of important cities along the HSRs, so traveling on HSR between cities can be very attractive. Imagine if Delhi-Mumbai HSR is built, maybe only 30% or even less of the passengers will travel on Delhi from/to Mumbai directly, but the rest of passengers traveling from Delhi/Gurgaon to Jaipur, Jaipur to Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad to Mumbai etc can board the same train, and spend only 1-1.5 hours and much less money compared to air travel on these sections, plus seats are much more comfortable, trains are running smooth and quiet and you can work on your computer/phone with wi-fi. So HSR does not only benefit the two end cities, it greatly improves the transportation infrastructures and strategic positions for the cities along the HSR.